To Further Vengeance
by Panthera Uncia
Summary: Under new management, Freddy's becomes something much greater...and much more sinister. A young couple and their close friend struggle to keep the place under control as they remodel the building and the animatronics who call it home. However, there is a curse that still lingers in the very heart of the establishment, and it can only be sated with agonizing sacrifice.


**Title: "To Further Vengeance"**

**Rating: M, for coarse language, violence, gore, death, and adult situations.**

**Welcome to this new fanfic. It's my first FNAF fanfic ever, so I guess please be nice. Constructive criticism is fine but just know I don't take this hobby very seriously and it won't be listened to. Hope you enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Five Nights at Freddy's (2).**

_**~Part 1~**_

_Chapter 1: Out With the Old_

_- April 16, 2011_

An old man in a wheelchair winced as the light glaring in from the front doors reached his tired eyes. Behind him stood the comfortable confines of his now-unoccupied office. He had founded this place some seventy-seven years ago in 1934, a lull between the wars. Kids had flocked to it from the very day it had opened. He had always loved to see their grinning faces and hear their amused laughter. Now he was leaving all of that in the dust. His aged mind slowly flooded with sadness. His life's work was no longer his.

The back left wheel on his wheelchair shrieked as it came to a stop. Before him, outlined by the piercing sun, stood two tall figures. The old man shifted his thick glasses and their faces came into focus. His heart lifted a little at their smiles. He felt more at ease leaving this place in their care.

The first figure, a lanky, broad-shouldered man with a clean-shaven face and crystalline blue eyes stepped forward and held out his hand to the gentleman in the wheelchair.

"Mr. Fazbear, it's my absolute honor to meet you," the young man's grin widened a fraction.

Mr. Fazbear reached up and shook the offered hand, giving a light smile back, "It is nice to meet you as well Mr. Menson. I'm so glad that you're willing to take over this place. It means a lot to me."

"Please, call me Nick."

The second figure stepped up and shook Mr. Fazbear's hand as well.

"If you'll excuse me, Mr. Fazbear, the place means quite a lot to _all_ of us. We are thrilled that you trust us enough to put us in charge," the figure, a curvy young woman with shoulder-length, blonde-brown hair and silver eyes, told him.

Mr. Fazbear lifted the large, tattered binder he held in his lap and handed it up to the couple.

"Here are all the documents and information you'll need about Freddy's. If you'll open it and take out the first two sheets of paper please?" the old man requested.

Nick Menson flipped open the decrepit binder and removed the two yellowed documents from their folder.

"These are the terms and services that I received when I first founded the company. If you'll both just sign the second page under 'company beta' for me, I'll sign off underneath saying that I have officially resigned from Freddy's and you two will take over as the owners of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria."

The couple both signed their names with ecstatic vigor and handed the papers over to Mr. Fazbear.

The old gentleman slowly penned in his name and the date and handed them back to Nick Menson and the woman, Grace Logan.

It was done. The grimy tile floor beneath him no longer belonged to old Jonathon Fredward Fazbear. A tear trickled down his wrinkled cheek and landed on his suit jacket, leaving a tiny stain.

"This place has been my life for seventy-seven years now. Would you mind wheeling me to the stage and Pirate Cove so I can say goodbye to the ol' animatronics?" Mr Fazbear asked, the words struggling to escape his throat.

"Of course," Nick replied and moved to take the handles of the wheelchair.

Everyone, including the man pushing Mr. Fazbear's wheelchair to start, walked down the west hall to the dining area. Across the large room was the stage. Three giant figures stood there solemn and still. On the left was a dark purple rabbit with pinkish-red eyes, holding an electric guitar. On the right stood a yellow chicken animatronic with pale blue eyes and a bib around her neck that read "Let's Eat!". The last figure on the stage was a hulking brown bear animatronic with sky blue eyes, a top hat, and black bowtie, holding a large toy microphone. All three animatronics were in a state of rather severe disrepair. The rabbit was missing one ear entirely and patches from its fur suit were missing. One of the hard plastic eye mechanisms was shattered and barely attached to the head. The chicken was head to toe filth. The yellow fun fur that had once probably been bright and lustrous was covered in dirt and lint. The top half of the chicken's beak was lop-sided. The bear was no better than the other two. His top hat was frayed and covered with poorly stitched patches. The giant gloves that once covered his hand mechanisms were gone, leaving the endoskeleton showing. There was also a huge rip up the left side of his head mask that curled up under his left eyebrow and showed off the metal underneath.

Mr. Fazbear leaned forward and put his fingers on the edge of the stage. He let out a long sigh.

"We plan to rebuild all of them, Mr. Fazbear. They won't be leaving Freddy's at all, just getting a makeover. You're welcome to come and see them whenever you like, though the place will be under construction for some time," Nick explained.

Mr. Fazbear nodded and pointed towards Pirate Cove, "Take me to see Foxy."

They complied and wheeled the old man to the starry curtains surrounding a small platform. Mr. Fazbear tried tugging the curtains aside but couldn't manage it in the chair so Nick and Grace moved around him to help.

Seated inside the curtains was another animatronic, in even worse shape than the other three. He was a red fox dressed up assumedly like a pirate. However, the hook on his right arm was broken in the middle and his brown trousers were ripped to shreds, leaving only the waistband and a tiny bit of fabric around his thighs. His lower jaw was gone completely and so was his left eye. There was a huge gash up across his chest and both his left hand and his legs were just bare endoskeleton. A thin layer of dust coated his entire body.

Mr. Fazbear looked down and sighed again, "Poor Foxy. He never made it as long as the other animatronics. Even when we repaired him for a third time he still managed to fall apart. He was quite the trouble-maker though. You'll rebuild him as well, won't you?"

Grace looked at the elder rather curiously. He was oddly attached to these robots. Nonetheless she assured him that Foxy would be rebuilt too.

The old man just sat in his wheelchair staring at the fox animatronic for some time before the anonymous man from before spoke up, "Jon, it's time to leave now. Freddy's is in good hands."

They all exchanged goodbyes and then Mr. Fazbear was wheeled outside into a van.

Nick turned to his girlfriend and pulled her in close for a quick kiss on the lips. She wrapped her arms around him excitedly. This was a dream come true and the couple was determined to restore Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria to its former glory.

_-April 17, 2011_

Grace Logan felt the bed sheets stir next to her and then the arms of her boyfriend were draped over her, pulling her closer to him. She turned over to face him, blinking the sleep out of her eyes.

"Good morning beautiful," Nick whispered.

Grace turned her head to check the clock behind her.

"It's only 6:00 Nick, I'm going back to bed," she growled.

Nick pulled her closer again, reaching over to kiss her cheek, "We've got a job to do today remember? We own Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. We've got work to do!"

It took a second for Grace to remember the events that had occurred yesterday before her eyes lit up with joy. She practically jumped out of the queen-sized bed before hurrying to the closet to pick out an outfit for the day. Nick followed her, stopping behind her to embrace her. She turned to face him, setting down the clothes she had chosen.

"So, what's the plan for today?" she asked him, pressing her head up against his chest.

He ran a hand through her hair, "Well, first, I'm going to drive out and pick up Brooklyn and drop you two trouble makers off at the diner to go through and take stock of what we have. Then, if you have time, you can get to the fun part: coming up with designs for the new animatronics. After I drop you guys off, I'm driving over to Mr. Fazbear's place to pick up more paperwork. I'll also be assisting him with going over the documents of his will. I'll come and pick you girls up around 5:00 tonight and we can either go out to dinner or go home. How does that sound?"

Grace gave him a peck on the lips and smiled, "Sounds perfect."

He let her go and change while he got dressed himself, pulling on a pair of dress pants and a plain dress shirt with a tie.

Grace was shaking with excitement. She almost couldn't pull open the car door. They owned a maroon 2008 Chevy Tahoe which Nick was often teased about seeing as it was only the two of them. Nick had been planning on proposing to Grace sometime soon but it would be a while before they ever had any kids.

Their relationship was perfect. They had been dating for about 6 months now and everyone else was jealous of their seemingly flawless chemistry. Nick had once caught his friends betting on how long it would be before they got married. When he told Grace she seemed a bit uncomfortable with it so he didn't bring it up again. The thought of marriage was probably really intimidating for her.

Either way it was clear that they both loved each other very much and Nick was certainly content with their relationship, albeit the lack of sex. He and Grace had talked about it before and he did his best to understand where she was at. Besides, her kisses were to-die-for.

Nick drove across town to pick up Grace's college friend and licensed mechanic Brooklyn Harris. She was a short, muscular woman with a surprisingly innocent face framed by perfectly straight golden hair. It came as a shock when she told Nick about her job at an appliance and robotics manufacturing company. At first glance she seemed like anything but a tough, messy mechanic.

Brooklyn had been forcefully demoted to only a part-time shift at the company despite her hard work and skill, because of a theft that robbed the company of a large quantity of money. Because of their friendship and Brooklyn's knowledge of robotics, Nick and Grace had decided that if they became the owners at Freddy's they would hire her as a manager and animatron expert. When they brought it up to Brooklyn she was thrilled. They delivered the good news to her last night and she put in her 2-week notice at the mechanics company. She didn't work at all this week until 8:00 in the evenings and so she volunteered to come and help go through the place.

When they pulled into Brooklyn's driveway, the blonde was out the door and into the backseat of the car with her giant red toolbox before you could say "Freddy Fazbear".

"Hiya guys!" she greeted happily.

Nick didn't waste any time pulling out of the driveway and heading towards the diner.

It only took them about ten minutes to reach the diner. The lot was empty so Nick pulled into the closest spot. Everything was dark inside, making it look eerily foreboding.

Nick handed a backpack of supplies to Grace, "Here's the stuff you'll need. We're going to want everything recorded so we know what we have and what we'll need to purchase. Brooklyn, will you help us with the animatronic parts?"

"Of course!" the blonde replied matter-of-factly.

The two girls hopped out of the vehicle and waved goodbye to Nick as he drove away.

Grace tugged on her lanyard and pushed the key into the silver lock. It turned easily and the lock clicked. Grace pulled it open. The door swung easily on its much-used hinges.

"Looks like we might need new doors. This one practically fell off when I opened it," Grace commented.

Inside was even darker than it had appeared outside, but it didn't take long for Grace to find the light switches and turn them on. Almost every room lit up instantly.

"Let's go to the dining area first. We can get everything out in the open to take stock of it," said Grace.

Brooklyn nodded and followed slowly, "The place is a bit creepy."

Grace shrugged, "It's has been here since 1934. It needs a lot of renovations."

"They didn't have animatronics back in 1934 though," Brooklyn stated.

"I've heard they had puppets and people in costume performing back then," Grace explained.

Rows of tables were set up in the dining area and the three animatronics were still in their same places up on the stage. Brooklyn was like a kid in a candy store. She immediately climbed onto the stage and began feeling for an "On" switch on the bear animatronic.

She found it in no time. There was a little lever in the back of the animatronic underneath the head mask. She flipped the switch and Freddy Fazbear lurched into life.

"_He-he-hey there kids! My name is-is Freddy Fa-Fazbear! Are you re-ready to-o-o-o have fun?"_

"They all appear to be in massive disrepair. His voice box still works, but barely. We'll have to rework everything. Actually, I think the best thing to do is actually scrap these ones and restart from the beginning. His jaw mechanism is immobile and severely rusted and I would assume the rest of his endoskeleton is in a similar state. I can smell the iron," Brooklyn announced from the stage.

She flipped the switch on Freddy again to turn him off and hopped off the stage.

"So, as far as chain restaurants go, how many pizzerias are you and Nick planning to open?" Brooklyn asked, approaching Grace.

"Nick and I talked about it last night. See, we have a lot of money saved up that was supposed to go towards college. Well, I only went for two years to get my generals and Nick never went to college at all. So, his mother told him that he needed to spend the money she had saved up for him in a business. However, the rough plans we came up with last night are gonna cost way too much for us to build more than one, and even if we did, it would not amount to what this place will be like when it's finished. So we decided to do a "Disney World". We'll have just this place remodeled and redone and spend all of our money on making this location absolutely amazing. It will attract more attention and people from across the country," Grace expounded.

"So, how much money are we looking at for technology?"

Grace thought it over for a second, "Hmm...I'd say about $400,000."

"Holy shit!" Brooklyn hollered, "Where'd you get all that?"

"Well, actually there's a lot more than that. I guess we'd qualify as millionaires. The majority of it is from Nick's family," Grace explained, blushing, "We have at least $3 million available for this project."

"Damn! To build good quality, working animatronics would cost you about $13,000 for each one. With that amount we can make a ton of them!"

"Good! Because besides rebuilding the ones we have, Nick and I wanted to add like 20 more…" Grace said.

Brooklyn was getting really excited now, "This is going to be so much fun! Ahh! I could just die! I'm so glad I'm quitting my old job!"

She got up and hugged Grace.

"Can you help me get those guys down from the stage?" asked Brooklyn.

Grace nodded. Together they moved the three animatronics down off the stage.

"You know, there's more than just those three?" Grace muttered, half to herself.

Brooklyn caught her friend's comment, "O-M-G where? Tell me now Grace!"

Grace pointed to Pirate Cove, "There's one in there and there should be some old scrapped ones in the supply room if you want to go collect them. Nick wrote in his notes for me that they're pretty lightweight."

Brooklyn raced over to Pirate Cove and opened the curtains. Grace heard her gasp in surprise.

"Oh my gosh Grace, he looks awful. What did they do to these poor animatronics to put them in such a bad state?"

Grace made a noise that Brooklyn interpreted as an "I don't know". She picked up the fox animatronic under its armpits and half-dragged, half-carried the pathetic mess of fur, wires, and metal over to where the other three animatronics were.

"So, like, do they all have names?" Brooklyn questioned.

"Yup, as you heard, the bear's name is Freddy Fazbear after the founder and former owner. The chicken is called Chica and the rabbit is Bonnie. The one you just pulled out of Pirate Cove is Foxy," Grace explained.

"So creative," Brooklyn muttered sarcastically, "I'm gonna go check out the supply room."

Grace listened as the footsteps of her friend grew faint as she sifted through the contents of the backpack Nick had handed her. Inside was a 3-ring binder containing random documents, a clipboard, a little hand-bag full of writing utensils, a notebook, a calculator, a couple of different measuring devices, and two bagged lunches. Grace rolled her eyes in exasperation. Nick was way too into this business.

There was a scraping noise from down the west hallway and Brooklyn appeared from around the corner pushing a large box full of what looked like animatronic parts. She pulled out a black and white piece of fabric. On second glance, Grace realized it appeared to be a large puppet of sorts.

"What is this?" Brooklyn asked.

Grace opened up the 3-ring binder. Sure enough, there were a few pages of notes that Nick had taken and left for her.

"It's the Marionette. Nick left me notes saying that anything found in the supply closet is either an extra part, a broken part, or the remnant of an out-of-use animatronic from the shutdown of 1987. The Marionette, or sometimes called the Puppet, was never really an animatronic. It was kept in the Prize Corner at Freddy's in 1987," Grace read.

"Well, your notes are correct in that it wasn't an animatronic. It's too small to ever hold an endoskeleton. However, there are some thin flexible rods in its arms and a broken one in the back suggesting it did move in some way. Otherwise it's just a weird doll made of some sort of black denim and hard plastic," Brooklyn explained, tossing the thing onto the floor. Then she pulled out another figure from the box.

The second object actually was an animatronic. It was a small, fat humanoid with a spin-top hat and a brightly colored striped shirt painted on.

"That one is Balloon Boy," Grace said, "I don't want to rebuild those two, we can search them for working parts and then put them back into supply closet."

"Why not?" Brooklyn asked.

"The humanoid figures are disturbing and might scare children. Animals are a better attraction because kids find them exotic," Grace explained.

Brooklyn nodded and pulled the last thing out of the box. It was a twisted metal endoskeleton with limbs spouting from random places and what appeared to be two heads. Both heads had only one eye, though one head was only endoskeleton and the other was covered in the same material as balloon boy. The head that looked more complete was a metallic white rat-like face with pink rosy cheeks and red lipstick. It had a long snout with a row of sharp teeth. Brooklyn looked heart-broken. It reminded Grace of Mr. Fazbear when he had talked about the animatronics as if they were real people.

"Why does she look like this?" Brooklyn practically demanded through anger and hurt.

Grace searched her notes about the 1987 animatronics.

"She was supposed to be 1987 Foxy's version 2. The kids played with her too much while she was on free-roam mode and staff had to put her back together almost every night. Eventually she became an attraction for toddlers as a take-apart, put-together toy. They stopped calling her Foxy 2.0 and dubbed her as 'the Mangle' because of her severely broken appearance," Grace read out, "Why is this so upsetting?"

Brooklyn turned to her, eyes dark, "Somebody, some team of mechanics, worked extremely hard to bring...Mangle, to life. Do you have any idea how difficult it can be to make animatronics, especially back then? It probably took them months to finish her. But then the staff decided to just give up and let her become a monster. The whole point of this business is to bring the characters to life. Many believe that their animatronics are actually a living being beneath the metal and wires. It's a shame that all of these animatronics would be treated like this after all the blood, sweat, and tears that most definitely went into making them."

Brooklyn wiped her eyes. She was going to be making animatronics now, and she sure as hell didn't want them looking like this after all her hard work and money spent.

"There's something else you should know about Mangle," Grace spoke up again, her eyes widening as she read more through the notes, "Mangle was the animatronic that got the old restaurant shut down. There was an incident where the flexible spine mechs near her neck gave out and collapsed. Unfortunately, there was a child sitting beneath her, playing, when her fox head came unattached and fell. The jaws were open and the teeth impaled the front half of the child's head. There was severe brain damage and the doctors had to remove the frontal lobe of the child. Despite all attempts to save it, the child died after a week in the hospital. Because Mangle's head landed jaws first on top of the child, many people thought that the animatronic was actually possessed and had bitten the child on purpose. It was dubbed 'the bite of '87'. After the child's death, Freddy's was shut down for 5 years."

There was a long silence before Brooklyn said anything.

"Promise me that the ones I make won't end up like this," she commanded rather firmly.

Grace saw how much this job meant to her friend. She glanced at the animatronics scattered randomly around the room. They had no life in them now. They just stared blankly with their shattered eye mechs. But when Brooklyn had turned on Freddy he had sputtered into living. He had a real, tangible presence. He didn't seem demonic, murderous, or otherwise harmful at all. Brooklyn was attached to them already. Grace remembered that she, herself, was going to be designing the new animatronics. She would probably love them just as much as Brooklyn did. Besides, these were new times, technology was better, and Freddy's was under new ownership. Things had changed.

"I promise," Grace whispered back.

Until 4:45 the girls rummaged, counted, and recorded everything they could find. Brooklyn found the remnants of four more animatronics in the supply closet that Grace recognized as: Bonnie 2.0, Chica 2.0, Freddy 2.0, and Golden Freddy. All four were in the same state of disrepair as the rest.

Grace was bent over a table staring at her clipboard when two arms wrapped around her waist. She jumped in surprise and fear, and began to struggle when she heard laughter.

Nick had managed to get into the building and sneak up behind her. Both him and Brooklyn were chuckling at her reaction.

"Well, how about dinner?" Nick asked.

Grace turned around in his arms and pulled him closer. She nodded into his chest.

"Brooklyn, you're welcome to come with. Or, if you'd rather, we can take you home," Grace offered.

"Are you sure it'd be alright if I came with?" Brooklyn queried.

"Of course!" replied Nick.

Grace repacked the backpack and all three hopped back into the Tahoe. They drove to a little family diner and plopped down into a booth. They had been many times together so they already knew what they wanted. When the waitress came to take their order, all three rattled it off from memory.

"So, how'd it go with Mr. Fazbear?" Grace asked.

Nick smirked at her, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Grace stared at him hard waiting for him to continue. Nick took a deep breath before letting them in on the news.

"Mr. Fazbear decided to designate the entirety of his fortune to us to be used for the restaurant! The total would come to over five million dollars!"

"Oh my God!" Brooklyn gasped, "Is it wrong to wish that he'd hurry up and die?"

Grace flashed her a look and she blushed, feeling embarrassed.

"That's great news!" Grace exclaimed.

"And what did you two lovely ladies find in the ol' place?" Nick inquired, his eyes wide with curiosity.

Brooklyn and Grace took turns explaining to him about the old animatronics they found and about how the brand new animatronics would have to be built almost from scratch. Nick then handed them a large piece of drafting paper. On it was the rough sketch of a building. Everything was labeled and it was quite detailed. It was the outline of the new Freddy's. At the top it read "Freddy Fazbear's Funhouse".

"Holy shit!" Brooklyn gasped over Grace's shoulder.

"We'll need the four main animatronics plus Golden Freddy plus 20 brand new ones. Can you two handle it?" Nick asked, grinning at them.

The two girls looked at each other and smiled back at him.

Their meal was anything but silent. They talked the entire time about the plans for the restaurant and tossed out ideas for the animatronics. It was one of the happiest moments Grace had ever experienced. It was so simple, but it was pleasant. It was so filled with friendship and love that she wished it would never end. Just three good friends sitting around a table, enjoying each others' company.

But once Grace and Nick returned to their small rental house, Grace was faced with something that made her lose all desire in keeping today for forever.

The couple stumbled inside, both laughing and chatting about their unforeseen success. Nick led Grace to their bedroom and picked her up bridal-style in the doorway. She squealed in surprise as he dropped her gently onto the bed and crawled up, peppering her face with kisses.

"You're so beautiful," he whispered to her, diving down to capture her lips in a much more intimate kiss. She reciprocated, enjoying his attention. He ran his hand through her hair and down her cheek, rubbing her neck. It was sweet and loving, completely harmless.

But Nick was about to cross the line. Grace should have expected this. It had happened before. He was going to test her, see how far he could get. However, she was unaware at the moment, not paying attention to where his hands were wandering to next. She gasped in surprise when his fingers pressed under the curve of her breast. She reached up and pushed his head away.

"Please Nick, not tonight! You know I said I'd tell you when I'm ready for that stuff," she reminded him.

He looked a bit hurt, but confidence and lust were still present in his eyes, "You always say that. I want to be able to touch you for once. No sex, please just let me touch you. I won't hurt you, I promise."

He was pleading with her. God she wanted him to be happy, but she just wasn't sure about this. Every time he tried to get farther with her she froze. She didn't understand why she was so afraid. It was just a gut feeling, there wasn't any real logic behind it. She had given him plenty of excuses but in her heart they felt empty.

"I guess, just a little bit," she agreed hesitantly.

He reached down and resumed kissing her. Grace tried to shove away the fear and get into it a little but she still felt very afraid. Nick began to stroke under her breasts again, kneading a thumb into each one. For Grace it was uncomfortable but she promised him "a little bit".

"Take off your shirt," Nick commanded softly into her ear.

Hesitantly, Grace shrugged off her t-shirt and tossed it onto the floor. She had been shirtless in front of Nick before, but it felt different this time...it felt more vulnerable. Nick massaged her shoulders, slowly creeping towards her back. Finally he lifted her up a bit and fumbled with the clasp of her bra. He got it undone and slid it off of her arms like he was an artist revealing a masterpiece. Grace immediately moved to cover up her bare breasts.

"No, please, let me see," Nick groaned, trying to push her arms away.

He was much stronger than she was and was able to push her arms out of the way with ease. Once he had her arms pinned he began to touch her again, leaning down to kiss her at the same time so she couldn't really move. She kissed him back because she cared for him, but also because she wanted to pretend like this wasn't actually happening. Before she knew it, she was completely naked. One of Nick's hands wandered down to between her legs and Grace could feel herself getting aroused unwillingly.

Nick continued to ravage her body with kisses and caresses and Grace tried to ignore it until she saw her boyfriend beginning to unzip his pants. She tried to quickly gather her thoughts, and just as he lined up to push himself into her she was able to shove him away.

"No! You promised Nick!" Grace cried.

"You pathetic little bitch!" Nick shouted back, his eyes still clouded with lust, "We've been together a long time now. I want to be able to touch you by now! I want to be able to fuck you by now! I don't want to wait anymore! But since you don't trust me enough, since you don't love me enough, I'll go jerk off to some shitty porn! Thanks a lot Grace!"

What was wrong with him? Why was he acting like that? It just wasn't like him. He disappeared into the bathroom muttering curse words loudly under his breath. Grace pulled on her pajamas and curled up on the bed, waiting fearfully for him to come back.

After about ten minutes he came back into the room. Grace could see he was no longer aroused; but he never took his phone into the bathroom. He walked up to her slowly, without any menace and leaned down to kiss her gently on the forehead.

"I'm so sorry my love, please forgive me," he pleaded, pain clear in the tone of his voice.

"I forgive you, but I need some space now," she replied, her own voice flat. She pulled away from him and walked out into the living room carrying her blanket and pillow. She fell into a restless, nightmarish sleep on the couch.

_-April 18, 2011_

Grace had called Brooklyn and asked her to pick her up today. She didn't want to be in the same car as Nick this morning.

Brooklyn pulled into the driveway and watched her friend toddle towards her little red 2006 Chevy Cobalt. Grace dropped her backpack into the back seat and flopped into the passenger seat like a bag of sand.

"What happened?" the question was immediate.

"Nick decided last night was a good night to try to force me to have sex with him," Grace grumbled groggily, "He felt really bad afterward though. He wouldn't stop apologizing this morning. He's going to be in town all day today, checking on things like the money situation and how much land we have for expansion."

"What about us? What will we be doing?"

"We'll be starting the design process."

**Until next chapter, Panthera Uncia.**


End file.
